A few topics today. When First Worlders donate to the missions, some of it goes to leadership:

19. In the distribution of subsidies, a suitable share is to be set aside each year for the training and support of local clergy, the missionaries and catechists, and for the study groups mentioned above in No. 18. Bishops should present documentation on these matters to the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. (Ad Gentes 17, 29)

Lay people should be part of the oversight of funding and ministries. Also the gathering of people to conference in a larger group for the direction of the evangelical ministry:

20. A pastoral council should be duly established which according to No. 27 of the Decree Christus Dominus will have the duty to “investigate pastoral works, to weigh them and to formulate practical conclusions regarding them.” They are also to devote themselves to the preparation of a diocesan synod and to see to the implementation of the synodal statutes.(Ad Gentes 30)

Don’t look now, but groups like LCWR should be active:

21. Conferences and unions of men Religious and of women Religious are to be established in the missions in which the major superiors of all the institutes of the same country or region are to participate and by which their projects are to be coordinated.(Ad Gentes 33).

about Todd Flowerday

A Roman Catholic lay person, married (since 1996), with one adopted child (since 2001). I serve in worship and spiritual life in a midwestern university parish.

about John Donaghy

John is a lay missionary since 2007 with a parish in western Honduras. Before that he served in campus ministry and social justice ministry in Iowa. His ministry blog is http://hermanojuancito.blogspot.com

He also blogs reflections on the lectionary and saints/heroes/events of the date at http://walktheway.wordpress.com

He'll be a long-term contributor here analyzing the Latin American bishops' document from their 2007 Aparecida Conference.